Weekly TV news to watch

Sunday

Feb 26, 2012 at 2:00 AM

A peek at Oscar nominee George Clooney's TV beginnings and lots to watch this week.

TV ROOTS

Oscar favorite George Clooney ("The Descendants") used his starring role as Dr. Doug Ross on "ER" (1994-2009) as a springboard to his successful movie career. But before "ER," Clooney's TV resume was rather unimpressive:

"E/R" (1984-85) — Yes, this really was the title of a show set in a Chicago hospital's emergency room, and yes, Clooney played a doctor. But no, it was not a drama. And no, it was not a hit.

"The Facts Of Life" (1985-86) — In his one season on the long-running sitcom, Clooney played George, a carpenter who helped Mrs. Garrett (Charlotte Rae) rebuild her burned-down gourmet food shop.

"Sunset Beat" (1990) — He was one of a trio of motorcycle-riding undercover L.A. cops. It lasted a mere two episodes.

"Baby Talk" (1991-92) — In this sitcom inspired by the movie "Look Who's Talking," Clooney had a supporting role as a construction worker who was renovating the Manhattan loft of a single mom (Julia Duffy). The sitcom's gimmick: her baby's thoughts were uttered by an adult voice.

"Bodies Of Evidence" (1992-93) — Returning again to play a big-city cop, this time as a detective who got too emotionally involved in his cases.

SAD TALE

In Masterpiece's "The Old Curiosity Shop," rebroadcast at 9 tonight on WGBH, a teenage girl and her grandfather are penniless and on the run from a maniacal moneylender. Sir Derek Jacobi ("I, Claudius") and Sophie Vavasseur ("Northanger Abbey") star in one of Charles Dickens' most heartrending tales.

IN THE KNOW

They are iconic legends: inventors and warriors, leaders and mavericks. They were revered, feared and immortalized for the mark they made on history. The new series, "10 Things You Don't Know," promises the full story of history's greatest figures and events. The show premieres at 10 p.m. Monday on the H2 channel.

NBC SPRING

NBC has announced premieres of the new comedies "Bent" (March 21) and "Best Friends Forever" (April 4), as well as the comedic hidden-camera series "Betty White's Off Their Rockers" (April 4) for its spring lineup. "Community" also will return to the Thursday schedule starting March 15. NBC's spring schedule features the highest percentage of original programs in the network's history with only 13 total hours of repeat programming from Sunday to Friday through mid-May, says Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment.

CALL CAB

Premiering at 10 p.m. Monday on WGBH is "American Masters' Cab Calloway: Sketches." Emmy-winning filmmaker Gail Levin explores Calloway's musical beginnings and milestones in the context of the Harlem Renaissance and segregationist America. The film looks at Calloway's portrayal of Sportin' Life — a character in "Porgy and Bess" that the Gershwins partly based on him — and includes an interview with Matthew Rushing, choreographer/principal dancer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (Uptown). Rushing dances alongside an animated Cab and explains how modern Calloway's movements were.

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